Capitol Murder Read Free

asked.
    “I’ve never met the guy, so I don’t know what he’s like personally, but his politics suck. I’ll be amazed if he gets reelected the way he kisses up to terrorists.”
    “He doesn’t kiss up to terrorists,” Brad answered defensively. “He’s said time and again that he backs our efforts to deal with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. He just wants a sane approach to our political strategy in the Middle East.”
    “A sane policy would involve nuclear weapons. I wouldn’t mind seeing that whole area turned into a parking lot.”
    “Whoa, amigos,” Jake interjected. “We are not going to let politics ruin a perfectly good dinner. Rancor is bad for digestion.”
    “I second that motion,” Ginny said. “No politics at the dinner table, children.”
    Dana glared for a moment and gave Brad and Ginny a glimpse of the side of her personality that was truly scary. Dana knew no limits when it came to violence, and Brad was glad he was not her enemy.
    Dana shifted gears quickly. “All right. I’ll get off Brad’s knee-jerk liberal back.”
    “And I’ll agree to a truce with this fascist,” Brad answered with a grin.
    “I hope that this is the most controversy we’re involved in all year,” Ginny said, “or the rest of our lives, for that matter.”
    “I’ll second that,” Brad said. “I hope the rest of our lives are boring and that nothing of consequence ever happens to us again, ever.”
    “That’s not going to happen if you’re working in the Senate,” Jake said.
    “I meant in our personal lives. If I never see another serial killer or assassin again, it will be too soon. I’ve had it with excitement. That’s why I married the dullest woman I could find.”
    “Hey,” Ginny said, slapping him playfully.
    The foursome joked back and forth for the rest of the meal. While they waited for the bill, they decided to go to a nearby bar with live jazz that Jake knew about. When the check came, they cracked open their fortune cookies and read them out loud. Everyone laughed when Jake’s slip told him that he was going on a long journey. An inheritance was in Dana’s future, and Ginny was going to meet a dark, handsome stranger, which got Jake going.
    “What’s your fortune?” Dana asked Brad.
    “It’s pretty bland,” Brad answered, “It just says, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ ”
    Jake threw his head back and laughed.
    “What’s so funny?” Brad asked.
    “You’ve never heard that before?” Jake asked.
    “No.”
    “Well, my friend, that is an old Chinese curse.”

Chapter Two
    W hen Millie Reston woke up, the sun had not yet risen in Portland, Oregon, and it was well before her alarm was set to go off. She wasn’t surprised. It had taken forever to get to sleep; then she’d been up every two hours. It was nerves, pure and simple, and there was a good reason for them.
    When Millie was a child, her favorite fairy tale was Rapunzel. She would listen to her mother read the story and imagine that she was the beautiful princess locked in the tower who let down her long golden hair so the handsome prince could climb up her tresses and rescue her.
    As she grew up, Millie became painfully aware that her looks weren’t much to talk about. She was gawky. Her hair was dull brown, not gold, and frizzy and unmanageable. Millie’s skin was far from smooth. She wasn’t fat, but she was overweight and her figure was lumpy. Millie did have one serious boyfriend in college, but that hadn’t worked out. Since then her social life had been bleak, and she had finally come to accept the fact that no one with or without royal blood was waiting for her.
    Millie’s professional life was as depressing as her social life. Her grades in college had been good, but she didn’t perform well on standardized tests like the LSATs, so she’d gotten into only second-tier law schools. Millie had graduated in the top third of her class, but the big firms wouldn’t even look at graduates who